The Fight For Rabbi Schneerson’s Honor

OK Jeopardy Fans–“World Religions for $1,000” The answer is “A group who worship a Rabbi that was resurrected as the Jewish Messiah.” If you answered “What are Christians ?” the announcer might say:

“You are wrong, YOU LOST. And let me tell you what you didn’t win: a twenty volume set of the Encyclopedia International, a case of Turtle wax, and a year supply of Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat. but that’s not all. You also made yourself look like a jerk in front of millions of people. You brought shame and disgrace to your family name for generations to come. You don’t get to Back tomorrow– You don’t even get a lousy copy of our home game. you’re a complete loser!”

The correct answer is Chabad Chassidim, or at least a lot of them. I see the Chabad’s Mitzvah Mobile near my office often. It looks like a Winnebago type vehicle with a giant picture of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson on it with the words “the Moshiach is coming.” I always thought it was kind of a warning to ” get your acts together,” but friends tell me that it really proclaiming that the great Rabbi is returning as the Messiah.That might be all changing.

In Israel Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar will be asked to decide this weighty theological question and in the process pass judgment on thousands of members of the messianic stream within Chabad Hassidism who believe that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who passed away in 1994, is the messiah.

About two weeks ago an immigrant to Israel, who was eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return but was not considered Jewish according to halacha, appeared before a rabbinic court in Jerusalem to convert to Judaism.

He had become interested in Orthodox Judaism through Chabad and was learning in a Jerusalem yeshiva. Prof. Binyamin Ish-Shalom, head of the Joint Institute for Jewish Studies, where the young man prepared for his conversion, said that the rabbinic court, impressed with the high level of adherence exhibited by the young man, was on the verge of converting him.

“Suddenly, one of the rabbinic judges asked him if he believed that the rebbe [Schneerson] was the messiah,” recounted Ish-Shalom.

“He answered, ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve been taught,’ or something like that. And that was it; at least one of the judges refused to convert him.”

A source in the State Conversion Authority said that at least two leading religious Zionist rabbis ruled that messianic Chabad was beyond the pale of normative Jewish belief. “They [messianic Chabad Hassidim] attribute to him supernatural powers years after he passed away. That is not Judaism. It’s something else.” Source: Gentile Lubavitcher refused conversion

And here in NY, it seems the “good guys” have won the battle over control of the Lubavitch Headquarters, 777 Eastern Parkway.

The strongly worded decision from Justice Ira Harkavy of New York State Supreme Court on Dec. 27 says that the only parties with the right to determine what happens at 770 are its owners, two of the movement’s central organizations, Agudas Chasedei Chabad and Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch (Association of Chabad Chasidim and the Lubavitch Educational Organization).

The decision marks a victory for those in the movement who have been trying to marginalize the messianists — who believe in proclaiming the last, late Lubavitch rebbe as the messiah —since the faction began asserting itself when the rebbe was debilitated by a stroke in 1992, two years before he died.

A spokesman for Agudas and Merkos, Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, said, “We’re very gratified by the court’s decision. We’re pained by the events that led us here and still harbor hopes that those responsible will recognize the error of their ways.”

The judge ruled that the two organizations have the right to eject their opponents, an organization named Congregation Lubavitch Inc., which was incorporated two years after the rebbe died and whose trustees were elected by the Crown Heights Lubavitch community to run synagogue operations. Those four trustees, known as gabboyim, lost the case but have 60 days to appeal as long as they put up $500,000 bond and pay the synagogue operating expenses. Lubavitch Non-Messianists Win Court Battle

One thing’s for sure Jews we have to zealously guard against false messiahs that come from within our ranks as much as we have to guard against the Jews for Jesus that come from outside our ranks. From what I know of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (from people who have met him) this great Rabbi whose memory is being tampered with, would want us to fight for his memory. When People go around calling him the Moshiach they are destroying everything he fought for in his life. This is a shandah, this is a desecration of the dead the same as destroying Jewish Tombstones in Oddesa. Actually this is a lot worse…this is the destruction of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s legacy.

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